Students from the Grande Ecole Engineering Programme Arts et Métiers campus, members of the Arts et Métiers Team, took first place at the "Low-Cost Kart Challenge."
This competition is open to European universities and engineering schools and is designed to pit student-designed internal-combustion and electric karts against each other; it took place on May 6–7, 2026, at the karting track next to the famous Nevers-Magny-Cours circuit.
This European competition, open to universities and engineering schools in France and Romania, pits student-designed gasoline-powered and electric karts against each other. Eight teams competed, and the team from the Cluny campus took first place.
“We bought a go-kart on Le Bon Coin and repainted it in the school’s colors, complete with our sponsors’ logos,” explains Bastien Braize. We conducted a number of test runs on the school’s tennis courts, which were made available to us by the administration. Up against well-broken-in karts, our brand-new kart came out on top in the endurance events as well as in the overall standings in the electric category across several time trials. We all took turns driving.
A team victory
The Cluny team took first place in the endurance events and the overall standings in the "electric" category. This achievement is the result of the design and manufacture of an electric kart, carried out entirely in-house at the Arts et Métiers campus Arts et Métiers Cluny.
This success is the culmination of a year’s work, from the design of the chassis and electrical system to track testing. The team of seven students manufactured most of these components, including the precision machining of parts such as bushings and washers.
"This is the second year that students have designed a go-kart," says Bastien Braize, the project leader. The project has been very time-consuming, with the seven of us who were most motivated spending some 300 hours on it—both during class and in our free time.
A victory that is part of the educational program
The project is based on:
- a course designed to teach students mechanical design and the fabrication of chassis (welded structures),
- an educational project on project management, as well as the design, sizing, and implementation of the powertrain, from the battery to the motor.
Another victory
The student association Arts et Métiers Team (AMRT) was founded in 2020 by Théo Laplasse, a student at Arts et Métiers, with the goal of competing in the international Formula Student competition with an electric single-seater vehicle. In June 2025, the association won first prize in the ENEDIS EV Challenge with their electric kart.More information
Featuring Bastien Braize, Romain Forest, Henry Loye, Joseph Aurelle, Maxence Pion, Tom Tallois, and Sebastian Pimentel.
Christophe Priolet-Lefebvre, a member of the Cluny MAPUS, accompanied them on the day of the competition and helped them build their kart alongside other colleagues, such as Benjamin Roux and Pascal Filipek.
